Crispy
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Posted: May 14, 2012 at 9:58pm
Not too many people have heard of this flick, and the ones that have have pretty much hated it universally. Well, in the upcoming paragraphs, pigs are going to fly, and Forget Me Not is going to get a positive review.
It's graduation night and things couldn't be brighter at the Channing household. Both siblings, Sandy and Eli, have finished high school and scored a full ride to Stanford, and they celebrate the way all good academics do: they go to a monster party, drink massive amounts of booze, and smoke enough weed to put Cheech and Chong into a coma. As the party winds down, the headcount slowly dwindles down to a more intimate group of friends, and as a final hurrah on the night, they venture to the graveyard to play a ghost-story-themed version of tag they played as kids. Just before they start, a girl their age pops out of nowhere and asks to play. They oblige her, huddle up, and open with the game's chant: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, release the one ignored by Heaven. 8, 9, 10, Now run and hide or join her at the devil's side. 11 comes, the clocks will chime, forgotten souls erased by time. Midnight comes it's not too late, so kill the ghost or seal your fate." When the new girl wins the game, Sandy watches her jump of a cliff before disappearing. Rattled, but unwilling to let this stranger's actions ruin their summer plans, the group sets off for the beach, but find they're being picked off one by one by a vicious ghost. Perhaps most disturbing, when one of them dies, Sandy is the only one who remembers them, as their entire existence has been erased.
OK no, this is not a good film, but I don't believe it deserves all the hate it receives either, especially in this genre. The concept is simple enough; it's the kind of flick where the big twist is readily obvious, and in truth was never really meant to be a twist at all. As soon as things get rolling, it's obvious that the poem explaining the rules of their childhood game is making up the "rules" of the creature stalking them, and its a concept that works beautifully when Sandy's past is revealed. Still, it keeps things moving along nicely, and it's a fun ride. Also, I liked how it had something of a Butterfly Effect thing going on; each character's existence being erased has a domino effect, changing little things such as their trip being moved from the beach to the mountain. It was a nice touch. The ghosts looked pretty good as well: dark accents, that lower frame-rate shaking effect, it's all been done before, but it worked decently enough.
All of this simplicity is the movie's biggest weakness however. While the concept is relatively original, the execution is very shallow, and all the little bits and bobs have been done before, and done better. Yes, I do feel that this movie doesn't deserve the magnitude of hate it's getting, but at the same time, I have no retort for any of the criticisms made in those same reviews. In addition, the T&A is absolutely non-existent, and while there's a lot of sex in the plot, it's all of that useless implicit variety. If you're gonna kick out a sub-par horror movie, the least you can do is show us the goods.
As far as acting goes, Cody Linley was probably the best of the lot, especially since he was able to play pot smoker who didn't fall into the same old cliches, and his running pirate joke was kind of funny. It was all downhill from there though. While Carly Schroeder was merely below average in the starring role of Sandy, the ancillary support was in rough shape. Brie Gabrielle and Jillian Murray in particular left a bit to be desired.
Again, you'll be hard-pressed to find too many more positive reviews of this film, and this one certainly isn't glowing, but I don't see why it's receiving such animosity. It's an average horror flick with the usual downfalls we've all come to expect, but it provides a few nice visuals and a halfway-decent story to make it a worthwhile ninety minutes. 6/10.
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